I will be publishing a series of posts that will help you to better understand the character Ellie Parker from my novel, The Paper Girl. If you’ve read it, these posts will hopefully give you a fuller understanding of Ellie and her life. If you haven’t read it (or are currently reading it), don’t worry, there are no spoilers! You benefit from these articles regardless of whether you have read The Paper Girl.
Have you ever wondered how learning happens? When you think of learning, you probably imagine sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher or attending a free online presentation. But there is another form of learning you may not have considered and it’s how your brain learns best.
Your brain learns best by feeling it in your body. Imagine someone showed you a dance step. Would it be easy or hard for you to copy it? For me, it would be nearly impossible to copy because I can’t see dance steps very well. Now imagine someone took you through the new dance step, to help you feel it in your body. Which way would be more effective for you?
Imagine a different scenario. First, imagine someone helping you learn a new math skill by taking you through the process of solving the problem, making sure you understand what you’re doing along the way so that by the time you’re done, you have experienced the entire process. Next, imagine watching someone explain how to solve the problem. Which way would you be more likely to learn?
We all learn by using our bodies and experiences as a reference point. We compare everything in our world to ourselves and this is normal. It’s how our brains operate. You have probably heard people share experiences that you cannot wrap your mind around because you have not lived it. It’s probably difficult to wrap your mind around what it might have been like to live in the year 1000, but you’re likely to understand your neighbor when they tell you they feel stressed because they work until five, then drop their kids off at soccer practice and then have to go to the grocery store and cook supper. You understand because you’ve been there, too (or somewhere similar).
I learned the hard way that people can’t understand what they haven’t felt by trying to explain my disability to people. Before the age of 40, I really didn’t understand what I struggled with. It was after that age that I finally understood I had cortical visual impairment. Even then, verbally explaining it to people was an exercise in futility. No one understood what I was talking about and it was a very frustrating experience for all concerned. Why?
Here’s an activity to show you what I mean. I will explain my experience with CVI in two ways. In the first part, I’ll use words. Then, look at the questions I wrote about CVI. In the second part, I’ll show you a picture I edited to mimic how someone with CVI might see the world. (It’s how I used to see the world.) I’ll then show you the same set of questions. See if your answers to the questions change. Don’t peek! Do part one before proceeding to part two.
Part 1:
Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is a disability where the brain has difficulty interpreting visual input. People with CVI sometimes describe the world as looking like a kaleidoscope. Others may see wavy lines when lines are straight or the world may look something like what you see, but with fewer details, especially in the distance.
Latency is one characteristic of CVI. Latency refers to the time that elapses between when the eyes land on a visual target and when the person knows what they’re looking at. It can take up to sixty seconds for someone with CVI to figure out what they’re seeing.
Visual complexity is particularly difficult for people with CVI. Visual complexity refers to how busy a visual environment is. A cluttered drawer is very complex while a clear countertop with only two or three items on it is much less complex. The more complex the visual scene, the longer it will take someone to figure out what they’re looking at.
Faces are the most visually complex thing a person can look at. Facial expressions involve the whole face and are fleeting. In addition, people show many facial expressions per minute, making it difficult for people with CVI to keep up with all the changes.
Questions:
If you had CVI, what would it be like to eat at a restaurant? Think of all the aspects of eating out: walking into the restaurant, walking to your seat, reading a menu, conversing with people, finding the restroom, etc.
How would CVI impact relationships?
What would school be like?
Part 2:
In the second part, the top photo is the one edited to mimic CVI and the bottom photo is the original. I included the unedited photos so that you can see the difference between the two.
CVI Photo 1:
Unedited Photo:
CVI Photo 2:
Unedited Photo:
Questions:
If you had CVI, what would it be like to eat at a restaurant? Think of all the aspects of eating out: walking into the restaurant, walking to your seat, reading a menu, conversing with people, etc.
How would CVI impact relationships?
What would school be like?
Did your answers to these questions change? For most people, the answer is probably yes. If your answers changed, how did they change? Did you have a more complete answer? Did it feel more intuitive to answer them?
Why did your answers change? When I do this activity in courses I teach, people often say that when I give a verbal description of CVI, they only sort of understand it. But when they see it, they feel what the world might look like and my previous descriptions make sense.
What was your experience of this activity? Leave a comment! Let me know what it was like for you. Was it eye-opening to see the edited photos? Did it help you to understand what living with CVI might be like?